Weather Forecast in Delhi City

Delhi (/ˈdɛli/, also known as the National Capital Territory of India) is a metropolitan region in India that includes the national capital city, New Delhi. With a population of 22 million in 2011, it is the world's second most populous city and the largest city in India in terms of area. The NCT and its urban region have been given the special status of National Capital Region (NCR) under the Constitution of India's 69th amendment act of 1991. The NCR includes the neighbouring cities of Baghpat, Gurgaon, Sonepat, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida and other nearby towns, and has nearly 22.2 million residents.

Although technically a federally administered union territory, the political administration of the NCT of Delhi today more closely resembles that of a state of India, with its own legislature, high court and an executive council of ministers headed by a Chief Minister. New Delhi is jointly administered by the federal government of India and the local government of Delhi, and is the capital of the NCT of Delhi.

Delhi has been continuously inhabited since the 6th century BC. Through most of its history, Delhi has served as a capital of various kingdoms and empires. It has been captured, ransacked and rebuilt several times, particularly during the medieval period, and the modern Delhi is a cluster of a number of cities spread across the metropolitan region. This is why Delhi is sometimes called the City of cities.

Delhi was the site of ancient Indraprastha, the mythical capital of the Pandavas during the Mahabharata. Delhi re-emerged as a major political, cultural and commercial city along the trade routes between northwest India and the Gangetic plain during the Delhi sultanates.

In AD 1639, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built a new walled city named Shahjahanabad, in Delhi, which served as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1649 until the Rebellion of 1857. Shahjahanabad today is Old Delhi. The greater part of Old Delhi is still confined within the space of Shah Jahān’s walls, and several gates built during his rule—the Kashmiri Gate, the Delhi Gate, the Turkman Gate, and the Ajmeri Gate—still stand. In 1911 the British determined to shift the capital of India from Calcutta (Kolkata) to Delhi, and a three-member committee was formed to plan the construction of the new administrative center. The key architect on the committee was Sir Edwin Lutyens; it was he who gave shape to the city. The British moved to the partially built New Delhi in 1912, and construction was completed in 1931. A new capital city, New Delhi, was built to the south of the old city during the 1920s. When the British left India in 1947, New Delhi became its national capital and seat of government.